SHIVAMOGGA/BENGALURU: In the second such case in Karnataka in a span of three days, a person who was administered the Covishield vaccine two days earlier, died on Wednesday morning due to Myocardial Infarction. The Health Department, however, maintained that the death was not related to the vaccine. Meanwhile, Karnataka has crossed the one lakh mark for beneficiaries for the Covid-19 vaccination.
The deceased is Dr Jayaprakash (59), a well-known orthopaedic surgeon and owner of J P Hospital in Shivamogga. According to health department officials, he was given a jab on Monday after which he continued to work at the hospital. He taught students at a private medical college and also saw out-patients in his hospital. However, on Wednesday morning, he complained of chest pain and was rushed to hospital where he was declared brought dead, officials said.
District Health Officer Rajesh Suragihalli told TNIE that Dr Jayaprakash died due to cardiac arrest and it had nothing to do with the vaccine. “The central ministry has clearly stated that the doctor had died because of cardiac arrest and is not related to the vaccine,” he said.
Meanwhile, 55 per cent of the targeted beneficiaries took the vaccine in the state on Wednesday, though some districts like Chitradurga, Dharwad and Koppal continued to show only about 28 per cent people coming forward to take the jab.
Highest turnout in Chikkamagaluru
The turnout was the highest in Chikkamagaluru district at 73 per cent. The other better performing districts in terms of vaccine coverage on Wednesday were Tumakuru at 68 per cent, Vijayapura at 66 per cent, Udupi and Kodagu at 66 percent and Yadgir at 65 per cent. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday had directed the states to engage with beneficiaries of the vaccine. He said that vaccine hesitancy is not new and has been there in other countries too.
“It has nothing to do with only Covid-19. Probably, the degree may be more in Covid-19 because it is a new disease and a new vaccine. We have seen this in polio, measles, mumps. The only way of addressing it is by engaging repeatedly with the beneficiary groups, and trying to address their doubts and confusions. That is our advice to all state governments,” he had said. However, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that in Karnataka, there has been no such major hesitancy among doctors or front line workers. “We are keeping the targets high so that we vaccinate more people.
We are also counselling and repeatedly creating awareness with leading doctors setting examples by taking the vaccine. We are expecting more health workers and front line workers to take the jab in the coming days,” Dr Sudhakar stressed. The minister also clarified that both the deaths reported in the state are not related to the vaccine, but due to cardiac arrest. While the CoWIN app has continued to suffer glitches in many districts still, the officials doing the registrations manually fear that this may create trouble once the number of beneficiaries increases.